Match report

Liverpool return to big time after early flurry sinks Hoffenheim

FULL TIME: Liverpool 4-2 Hoffenheim (agg: 6-3)

Nope! That’s your lot! Liverpool join Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, Manchester United and Celtic in the group stage of the Champions League! Klopp flashes a wide smile. They were the better side over both legs, but were pushed hard by an excellent Hoffenheim, who kept this tie alive longer than the scoreline suggests. “We’re delighted to get through to the Champions League, where we know Liverpool belong,” says their captain Jordan Henderson, who also has the good grace to laugh as he admits the defence might still be something of a work in progress. Anfield celebrates, and looks forward to an exciting, if sometimes nerve-wracking, autumn of fixtures on the continent.

87 min: Mane wanders down the left. He slips the ball inside for Wijnaldum, who keeps it going towards Firmino on the right. The Hoffenheim old boy steps inside the area and lashes hard into the side netting. And that’s the last act by Mane, who is replaced by Klavan.

84 min: Kramaric curls another cross into the Liverpool box from the left. Wanger leaps, and is beaten this time by Lovren, although not particularly convincingly. Anfield is nervous. Liverpool have been the better side tonight, but they’re contriving to make a meal of this.

83 min: Wijnaldum buys a cheap free kick in the midfield, allowing the clock to run down, an ersatz Didi Hamann tribute act. “I concede the argument on Yakety Sax (67 min),” writes music scholar Sam Metta Bexar. “But I might add it perhaps works even better if the song is played on a kazoo: they’re just that nutty sometimes!”